Shorter Sessions and Moving Entry Points

Someone recently asked me to think about shorter sessions and moving entry points.

Here are my thoughts:

1. We have to identify courses than lend themselves to a modular environment. Or, transition to it.
2. More importantly, we should separate learning events from assessment events. Or at least not tie them to each other. Why does someone have to wait until we are past the unit to be assessed? That’s the thinking behind this.

With these two things in mind (and others) in trying to change a semester model, I would start by

1. Making online courses 8 weeks (period, whether or not they will be modularized). This fits in the current semester model. With this, a student that is two weeks late for the semester can start in 6 weeks. Although, I think 6 weeks is too long, so maybe have 4-week modules in an 8-weeks course, so that the student can start half way without a problem or we can have 8-week courses starting every 4 weeks. 
2. For that last thought and maybe in general, we cannot offer things that give student too many choices at the same time. Why dilute our offerings by having too many choices? So, instead of offering 262 and 263 at the same time and having 10ish in each, we offer 262 now and 263 alternating to it. This is only for those low enrolling courses. Of course, we have classes that we can run all year long and be full (ENGL, MATH, BIOL, etc). 
3. Ok, so now we have, hopefully, been able to create learning events and assessments that can be done in 4-week modules inside an 8-week course. So, we move this to the local environment. Assessments would remain online while learning events happen in the classroom (easy, right?). Well, it would require faculty to follow the same 8-week course schedule that was done already, so we (and students) would know what will be thought each live-session of the 8 weeks. Now, students can either start a course half way or wait until the next one begins. If we can have starts every 4 weeks, then I would do that.

Sharing an Article on HyFlex Classes

This article does an excellent job at explaining the competency-based learning models I have discussed. It is more of a flexible hybrid course with learning sessions and assessments being separate along with having support available for our students. http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7066.pdf

 

Going Beyond the Credit Hours

The conversations about direct assessments continue. Below is an article on going beyond the credit hour, which is a great thing to do. However, we should also stay focus on the other higher education mission, which is to provide a learning environment. Even those with previous experience can learn more and become even more of a well-rounded individual.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/03/19/feds-give-nudge-competency-based-education

Letting Students Choose their Learning Platform

More than 30% of college students nation-wide take at least one online course (http://sloanconsortium.org/news_press/january2013_new-study-over-67-million-students-learning-online). I’m sure there were several reasons for this (not withstanding that some courses are only offered inline due to declines in enrollment).  Other reasons may fall in line for the purpose of online education such as flexibility, convenience, practicality from the student’s perspective.

What if we were to combine this? The hybrid format comes up where students attend a portion of the class online and the other portion in person.

What if we did it better? We give the student the total option of attendance. The material is delivered in various ways: online and in-person; then, giving the option to the student as to what format they wish to learn from.

It may not be quite just from a learning standpoint to expect a commitment to all-online or all-live for the full quarter or semester without taking under consideration that even within a course material can be best delivered in various ways and people learn things differently depending on the concept. With this in mind, the commitment is then to complete the content of the course and all the required assessments in a certain period of time regardless of where the information came from.

Of course, as higher education, we should create a model example of credible, valid, and reliable sources of information by developing material to be delivered in various ways (and sharing). 

Universities earn an F accoring to Strategy-Business

While colleges and universities accomplish their goal of educating their students and awarding degrees based on what the students have demonstrated they know, this article points out a few areas in which we can do better:  completion, cost, employer needs, retention, and others:  http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00147?gko=da535

 

Breaking SLO's into 3 areas: Delivery, Assessment, and Support

More of my thoughts on this idea of competency based learning: break the student learning outcomes (SLO’s) into 3 distinct sections:

(1)       Delivery of Material – This can be done in (a) the form of online resources within and outside of Blackboard (videos, lecture recordings, etc.) and (b) the form of lecture series (learning sessions) focusing on specific SLO content – there are some SLO’s that cross courses, so why “teach” them to each different group. For example, courses that all deal with MS Office Software. If they share a common SLO, then they can share the material delivery as well. These learning sessions do not have to be 50 minutes or 1:15; they are as long as it takes to deliver the material. A schedule, of course, would have to be provided in advance.

(2)       Assessment of Student – This does not have to be done by the same person who delivered the material. In fact, why not have the checks and balance? The assignments are assessed by faculty credentialed for the SLO of each of the courses. Using the same example above, the student would attend a learning session where they learned to create tables. Then s/he would create the tables in MS Word (or the appropriate word processor) and submit them to the appropriate faculty member for assessment.

(3)       Student Support – Here’s where lab space and tutors come in. We need to have the ability to provide support for students in two ways: (a) tutoring and content assistance in order to help students better understand the material in order to successfully complete the assessment. (b) General student support – someone the student can go to for anything. This person would also contact the student if they are not attending (participating) and/or not submitting assignments (assignments that are submitted and need help improving are taken care of in 3a).

It is certainly a different view.

Do we want a surgeon, construction worker, etc. to do (know) only 70% of the work?

Students are shooting for a passing grade regardless of how many competencies they fail to demonstrate. Competency based learning is definitely a great idea for assessment of student learning outcomes (SLO) and ensuring students are capable to perform ALL of the objectives to a minimum. I think I’ve shared with some of you the idea that a 70% C does no longer mean that the student completed each of the assignments with a 70% proficiency. It can mean that the student only did 70% of the work and left off those remaining 30% for whatever reason without completion.

The only way to ensure the complete assessment of all SLO’s for a course is to require a level of success for each SLO. Some of them may be set at 70%; others that are more important can be higher and even up to 100% proficiency. We should ensure the assessment of student proficiency of each and every SLO.